Having written about Tiger Woods and his sponsors in the past, I was pretty impressed by the balls on Nike for this US advert, which appeared on the CBS YouTube channel yesterday:
It carries a solemn voice over of Tiger Woods’ late father Earl, who died after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. His words and the manner in which its filmed (slow moving close up, B&W) seem to encourage the viewer to stop judging Tiger and try to understand him as a person. Pretty intense stuff.
And then something like this comes along on the web and smashes all that goodwill you might been feeling to bits:
Using the same video, a voicemail from Tiger to one of his mistresses is played instead of the gentle words of his father (which were no doubt taken waaaaaaay out of context). In it, he requests said mistress change her voicemail message to help him cover his tracks in case his wife calls.
And with this, I’m reminded of the fact he had over a dozen mistresses dotted around the US and care a bit less about what ‘he was thinking’ and ‘whether he learned anything’. I’m all for sponsors sticking by Tiger, but I think this advert from Nike might just have come a ‘bit too soon’.
Internet -1
Nike – 0
